Page 202 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

Robin bade him, for he saw he could not go.
Then Robin Hood turned to stout Edward of Deirwold,
and said he, ‘Give thy blessing on thy daughter’s marriage
to this yeoman, and all will be well. Little John, give me the
bags of gold. Look, farmer. Here are two hundred bright
golden angels; give thy blessing, as I say, and I will count
them out to thee as thy daughter’s dower. Give not thy bless-
ing, and she shall be married all the same, but not so much
as a cracked farthing shall cross thy palm. Choose.’
Then Edward looked upon the ground with bent brows,
turning the matter over and over in his mind; but he was
a shrewd man and one, withal, that made the best use of a
cracked pipkin; so at last he looked up and said, but in no
joyous tone, ‘If the wench will go her own gait, let her go. I
had thought to make a lady of her; yet if she chooses to be
what she is like to be, I have nought to do with her hence-
forth. Ne’ertheless I will give her my blessing when she is
duly wedded.’
‘It may not be,’ spake up one of those of Emmet. ‘The
banns have not been duly published, neither is there any
priest here to marry them.’
‘How sayst thou?’ roared Tuck from the choir loft. ‘No
priest? Marry, here stands as holy a man as thou art, any day
of the week, a clerk in orders, I would have thee know. As for
the question of banns, stumble not over that straw, brother,
for I will publish them.’ So saying, he called the banns; and,
says the old ballad, lest three times should not be enough, he
published them nine times o’er. Then straightway he came
down from the loft and forthwith performed the marriage

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